Appropriate Rural Technology Institute Biogas Plant

                                                      ARTI
 Biogas Plant   

http://www.build-a-biogas-plant.com/ARTI-Biogas.html

http://www.arti-india.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=45

http://www.completebiogas.com/B_ARTI.html

                                                                                (14.10.2013)

ARTI is the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, established by
Dr. Anand Karve in Pune. His design of Biogas is very simple. Take a water tank
and cut the top off. Take a smaller water tank, cut the top off and put it
upside down inside first tank. Add modest bit of plumbing and there it is. In
2006, ARTI won Ashden award for this design. ARTI is the only organization to
have won Ashden twice – earlier to convert agricultural waste into charcoal. Here
is a Youtube video that explains Aarti Biogas plant – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSl72xZHNk

Arti has
developed a compact biogas plant that uses waste food rather than dung/manure
as feedstock to supply biogas for cooking. Mere 1 kg of sugar or 1kg of wheat
flour or 2-5 kg of waste food can be sufficient to create 600 litres or 1 kg of
biogas, which can cook two meals for a family of four.

Arti’s
biogas system is 400-800 times more efficient than conventional biogas systems.
Conventional systems that use cattle dung, sewerage use 40 kg of feed stock to
produce the same quantity of methane and require about 40 days for completing
the reaction. Thus from the point of view of conversion of feedstock into
methane, the system developed by Dr. Karve is 800 times as efficient as
conventional biogas system.

The up-front cost of a biogas system is higher
than for LPG, since an LPG bottle plus a two burner stove costs only INR
5,000 whereas the compact biogas plan plus a biogas stove costs about INR
10,000. The operational cost for biogas is only Rs.2 per day, if waste flour is
used as feed stock and can be zero if the plant uses only food wastes. Biogas
can easily replace 50% of the LPG used by a family. Methane burns with a blue
flame, without producing any smoke or soot and hence is environment friendly.

ARTI biogas plants can
be built by following the instructions given in the ARTI Biogas
VCD available here – http://www.arti-india.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=79.

All you need is two
plastic water tanks – 1000 litres and 750 litres. You also need PVC pipes of
various diameters. And a biogas cook stove. All you need to do is to cut the
top of 1000 litres water tank and 750 litres water tank. Next you insert the
750 litres water tank upside down into the 1000 litres water tank. Fit in some
PVC pipes and you have almost got your biogas plant ready. A biogas cook stove
can use the gas to cook food.

In cities, waste food is
often discarded and its rising heap attracts flies and rodents, thus creating a
public health hazard. The compact biogas plant technology developed by ARTI
readily accepts highly digestible organic materials such kitchen waste as
feedstock and can easily blend into the urban lifestyle. A single plant
produces sufficient biogas to at least halve the use of LPG or kerosene for
cooking in a household.